Market failures and journalism

From the Carnegie Reporter, 2005:

... in some situations the market mechanism--pressured by cultural, social and political changes--may not always be adequate, and some thoughtful people are suggesting that this is the case with respect to the profit-oriented media that dominate the American news landscape. The traditional postwar mainstays of American news--the big three television networks and the many daily newspapers that provide most local coverage--seem to be caught in a dispiriting cycle of cutbacks and declining audiences that they lack the ability to break. At the same time, consolidation and the decline of family ownership have left media organizations subject to the same profit pressures as other publicly traded companies--despite the special mission media companies have always claimed for themselves. Under the circumstances, it's fair to ask whether the news organizations of today--and tomorrow--are up to the task of sustaining the informed citizenry on which democracy depends.